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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">EGUsphere</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>EGUsphere</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub"></issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/egusphere-2026-2799</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Estimates of carbonyl sulfide and methane stratospheric lifetimes based on AirCore profiles</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Zanchetta</surname>
<given-names>Alessandro</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>van Heuven</surname>
<given-names>Steven</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2001-8710</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Kivi</surname>
<given-names>Rigel</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8828-2759</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Ramonet</surname>
<given-names>Michel</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1157-1186</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Engel</surname>
<given-names>Andreas</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0557-3935</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Krol</surname>
<given-names>Maarten</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3506-2477</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff6">
<sup>6</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff7">
<sup>7</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Chen</surname>
<given-names>Huilin</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1573-6673</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Center for Isotope Research (CIO), Energy and Sustainability Research Institute Groningen (ESRIG), University of  Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Joint International Research Laboratory of Atmospheric and Earth System Sciences, School of Atmospheric Sciences,  Nanjing University, Nanjing, China</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>Space and Earth Observation Centre, Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), Sodankylä, Finland</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff4">
<label>4</label>
<addr-line>Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et l’Environnement (LSCE), CEA - CNRS - UVSQ - University Paris-Saclay, Gif sur Yvette, France</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff5">
<label>5</label>
<addr-line>Institute for Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, University of Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff6">
<label>6</label>
<addr-line>Meteorology and Air Quality, Wageningen University &amp; Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff7">
<label>7</label>
<addr-line>Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>01</day>
<month>06</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>39</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Alessandro Zanchetta et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2799/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2799/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2799/egusphere-2026-2799.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2799/egusphere-2026-2799.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Stratospheric loss is a major sink for both carbonyl sulfide (COS) and methane (CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt;), but their stratospheric lifetimes and sinks remain poorly constrained because high-resolution observations of their vertical distributions in the lower stratosphere are sparse. Here, we estimate the mean stratospheric lifetime and sink of COS and CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt; from their correlations with N&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O using two distinct methods applied to AirCore vertical profile measurements from three Northern Hemisphere summer campaigns. From these profiles, we derive a COS stratospheric lifetime of 69&amp;ndash;90 years, corresponding to a sink of 30&amp;ndash;41 GgS yr&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt;. For CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt;, we find a stratospheric lifetime of 149&amp;ndash;168 years, corresponding to a sink of 23&amp;ndash;26 TgC yr&lt;sup&gt;-1&lt;/sup&gt;. These values are in good agreement with previous estimates (39&amp;ndash;76 years for COS, 152&amp;ndash;160 years for CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt;) and with estimates based on ACE-FTS observations (75&amp;ndash;76 years for COS, 146&amp;ndash;172 years for CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt;). As has been noted previously, we also find a decline in the COS tropospheric burden between 2016 and 2020 in our AirCore samples, in contrast to the continued growth of CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt; and N&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O. In addition, we found that tracer-tracer correlations vary among flights, and even within the same campaign, pointing to variability in lower-stratospheric composition. Although this variability may reflect differences in stratospheric transport, its origin remains unclear and requires further investigation. These results provide observational constraints on the stratospheric budgets of COS and CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt; and help refine their representation in atmospheric chemistry and transport models.</p>
</abstract>
<counts><page-count count="39"/></counts>
<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>European Research Council</funding-source>
<award-id>742798</award-id>
</award-group>
<award-group id="gs2">
<funding-source>Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek</funding-source>
<award-id>184.034.015</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
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